


Love is Merely a Madness

by Tari_Kancheewa



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angry Doctor (Doctor Who), Angst, Bad Wolf, Dark Doctor (Doctor Who), Death, F/M, Major Character Injury, Meddling TARDIS, Sad Doctor (Doctor Who)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:27:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29592807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tari_Kancheewa/pseuds/Tari_Kancheewa
Summary: The Doctor has loved and lost. He moves on with heavy hearts and a sad smile, moves on to find others to help heal him.But what if there was an alternate version of the Doctor who had lost once too often?What if he never moved on, but instead went back to save those he had thought to have lost?Featuring the 10th Doctor post ‘The Waters of Mars’ and pre ‘The End of Time’ and the 11th Doctor post ‘The Curse of the Black Spot’ and pre ‘The Doctor’s Wife’.
Relationships: Amy Pond/Rory Williams, Donna Noble/Shaun Temple, Martha Jones/Mickey Smith, Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. Memory, All Alone in the Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> I have an active imagination at a stupid time of night lol. 
> 
> I was going to make this an alternative to An Unexpected Life Change with Hermione in it, but I think it might be easier to write this as its own story.

**The Doctor (10)**

_O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!_  
The Doctor exited the TARDIS and looked around. 

The frozen planet of Hisame – he chuckled at the name; on Earth it was Japanese for ice rain – was just that. Much like the planet of Woman Wept, it was all frozen over, though unlike Woman Wept, this planet never thawed, its sun was too far away and had gone down hours ago, but the moon shone brighter than any he had seen before.  
He shut the door tenderly, stuffed his hands deep into his pockets and wandered down the sand dunes to the nearest beach.  
As he wandered, he remembered, _Rose ran past him with a shriek of laughter as Jack threw a snowball at her, Sarah-Jane and Jackie laughing hard from either side of him as the ball connected with the back of Mickey’s head instead._ He shivered as a particularly strong gust of brumal wind tried to knock him off balance.  
_He ducked as Rose threw one in his direction, “oh that’s it!” he cried, wide grin etched on his face as he scooped up snow and chased after her. He grabbed her round the waist and pulled her round to shove the handful of snow down her coat, cackling away as she hopped around to shake it out. “Oof!” he pitched sideways as Mickey’s snowball made contact.  
Somewhere near the TARDIS Donna could be heard shouting, “SNOWBALL FIGHT!” and joyous chaos ensued._

He reached the shoreline and watched the still frozen sea as it glistened black and silver. _All gone_ , he thought, _they’re all gone_.  
This had been the planet they had their snowball fight; for two glorious hours they had forgotten about the Earth, forgotten their families, friends and livelihoods. They had been happy…

He stepped out onto the ocean and started to walk out into the dark, the cold biting at him, the wind turning his tears into tiny icicles.  
_They were all my family_ , his hearts pounded, _I loved them all in their own way, but now… even Jack!_

By the time he reached his destination, he was shivering hard, his teeth chattering fast as his muscles contracted and restricted in a vain attempt to warm him. He sat down on the ice and looked at his hands, pale and getting paler as the cold gripped his hands with it’s sharp talons. He could still make out the scars on them as he clung to her…

He drew up his knees and buried his head in them, struggling to swallow down the lump in his throat as his body numbed from something other than the cold.  
He shut down, the Doctor – last of the Time Lords – just shut down.


	2. Glow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mysterious glow approaches the most important people in the Doctor's life. What is it?

**Rose**

Rose walked out of the manor, took a deep breath and coughed. “Steady on, love.” Turning, Rose smiled as John wrapped his arms around her waist and lay a chaste kiss on her lips. “Don’t go regenerating on me, now.” She giggled.

“Tony!” Jackie’s voice shouted after the wayward 3-year-old.

John grinned and spun round, dropped to his knees and intercepted the toddler. “C’mere, you little Dalek!” he declared, scooping up his squealing prey and spinning round like a lunatic. “Yarg!” he growled like a pirate, “I’ve got ye, ye little scallywag!” he blew a raspberry onto Tony’s stomach and her little brother shrieked in laughter.  
Rose laughed as John held Tony in his arms and ran out of the manor to the car shouting, “Superman, dun da da duuun!” 

She leant against the doorframe and stared at the air between her and her beloved. It had taken a while for her to get used to him – he understood that – he was the duplicate of _him_ after all.  
One heart, one lifetime, just him and her, like she had always imagined… They had tried to think of names for him, but he had already chosen John Smith, so that was what they called him, Doctor John Smith of Torchwood London.  
Oh and _what_ a man!  
He was smart, funny, energetic, sexy, sarcastic, right old misery, right-handed, left-handed, a – sensible – gambler, a fighter and – evidently – hand a gob on him.  
She enjoyed her life with him, it was an adventure every day; they laughed, they danced, they sang – badly in his case, and they loved, oh _god_ did they love.  
He had bought her things she never knew she needed, or wanted, clothes and jewels and food and…

“Come on Rose! We’ll be late!” Pete, her, dad, called out.

Blinking, Rose realised everyone had piled into the car whilst she had been lost in her memory. “Coming!” They were going on a family picnic. 

Hours later they were home again, in front of the fire, watching the sci-fi film Alien, which John laughed at. There was a heat in her chest as the film reached its conclusion, a familiar heat that Rose had not felt in a year.  
John looked at her, concern in his eyes as he cupped her face, “your eyes have never done that before.”  
Jackie looked over having caught what he had said.

“Done what?” Rose asked, catching her mum’s pocket mirror.  
She gasped in shock, her eyes were glowing, a golden mist-like glow. “Oh my god!” she gasped.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Martha**

Martha looked up at Mickey as he leant down to help her up and over the wall. “Remind me again, how you survived the Master?” Mickey joked.

“With a _lot_ of help.” Martha retorted, giving a breathless smirk at her husband as he hauled her up.

Mickey chuckled, “right, Torchwood said it was down here somewhere. Quite why Captain Cheesecake isn’t doing this himself, I’ll never know.”

_“That would be because Jack isn’t here, Mickey.”_ the voice of Gwen Williams sounded in their ears, Mickey almost lost his balance. _“I’m heading this place, now. Even if he wanted to come back, he’d still have to work under me, now.”_

“Not that he’d say no to that.” Mickey replied.

“Steady there, Mickey, she’ll have you for harassment.” Martha chided.

Gwen chuckled down the phone, _“You both know I’m not like that.”_

Following Gwen’s instructions, Martha and Mickey entered the supposedly abandoned building and found exactly what they were looking for. “Target acquired,” she announced.

_“Right, be careful, you two, we’re picking up large power readings coming from inside.”_

Martha handed Mickey a sonic device not unlike the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver and he got to work undoing it whilst Martha secured the area.

She wandered the room, checking for the owner of the device that had come through the Rift not two weeks ago, wondering if the Doctor was alright. The last time she and Mickey had seen him, he had taken down the Sontaran the two of them had been attempting to subdue.  
He didn’t come down to them, no hug, just a small, sad smile.  
Mickey apparently knew what that had meant as he promptly clutched Martha and kissed the top of her head, that was when Martha, herself, knew… he had saved their lives as a goodbye.  
“Got it!” Mickey called, Martha rushed over and looked over his shoulder, not really understanding what she was looking at.  
Mickey frowned and looked at Martha, “is your flashlight of, babe?”

Martha looked in the direction Mickey was pointing and noticed that her TARDIS key was glowing. “Something’s wrong.” Martha said.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Donna**

Something was wrong. Donna could feel it. “Shaun Temple if you don’t tell me what you have done with it, I am going to _kill_ you!” she had barked.

“Donna, I swear, I don’t know what happened to your Gramps’s present! Oh wait, no panic over!” she had watched as her husband bent down and then stood back up, a triumphant grin on his face, “et voila!” he had produced the Christmas present her Gramps had given her a year ago.

They had got married a month ago, someone had been cheap and given her a lottery ticket, which had been a winner! But the most they had spent was enough to buy them a little house near her mum, Gramps hadn’t been well these last few weeks and she was getting worried.  
Now she stood in the waiting room pacing as Shaun cradled her mum. “He’s gonna be alright, mum,” she said, still pacing, chewing her thumbnail, not completely believing herself. “He’s gotta be…” she mumbled.

For what seemed like hours, a nurse came in to see the whole family stand up in unison, Donna slipping her hand into Shaun’s for comfort. “Mrs Noble, Mr and Mrs Temple-Noble.” He greeted. He was a young-ish man, no older than mid-thirties maybe, mousy brown hair and a pointed nose, “my name is Rory Williams, I’ve been assigned to your grandfather.”

Everyone nodded, Donna wanted to scream at him to get to the point. “how is he?” she asked instead, deciding to be nice.

Rory had that indifferent look in his eyes that all in the medical profession seemed to have, “he’s stable. We’ve put a stent in his artery to help with the blood flow. We’ll have to keep him in for the next few nights just to make sure he’s okay. But apart from that I believe he’ll make a full recovery.”

Donna felt her mum’s knees give as Sylvia sat down. “Thank you,” Donna said, “when can we see him?”

“You can go in now, if you’d like. But he may not be awake.” Rory warned, holding the door open for them and leading them down to the room containing her Gramps.  
He let them enter first before stalling, “what the hell is _that_?!”  
There was a golden misted glow hovering over Wilfred Mott, Donna stared at it, cocking her head to the side as it shot at her, disappearing as she screamed.

“Donna!” she fell back as multiple people shouted her name and all were black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no! What's going to happen to Donna?! Stay turned!!!


	3. Hiccoughs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 from the Doctor's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, roll with me for a second. 
> 
> The 11th Doctor has been open and honest with Amy and Rory and River about his previous face and the companions associated with that face, especially Rose.  
> So... yeah, just roll with it.

**The Doctor (11)**

“Whoa! Okay… here we go! Wooo!” the Doctor bounced around the TARDIS, Amy and Rory were gripping onto the railings as he danced around the console.  
“Nearly there… aaand GERONIMO!” he shouted as the TARDIS shuddered once more before coming to a complete and sudden stop, throwing everyone to the floor in a panting heap. “Yes, well, _that_ was fun!” the Doctor announced jovially as he pulled the Ponds to their feet. Of course, he knew it was _Williams_ but Ponds sounded better!

Grabbing his coat, he was stopped on his way to the doors by a beeping coming from the TARDIS.  
Dashing back, he skidded to a halt and pulled the monitor round to face him, going still and feeling every drop of colour leave his face.  
“Rory, I need you to come with me, it is of the utmost urgency and I need you to put on your hospital uniform.” 

At the mention of his hospital uniform, Rory didn’t need to be asked twice, but Amy asked what Rory didn’t. “why? What’s going on, Doctor?” 

The Doctor turned to face her, “one of my old companions, Donna, I told you about her.” He waited for Amy to nod, “right, well, her Gramps, lovely man by the name of Wilfred Mott, he’s been admitted to hospital with a heart attack and I need to go and see if there is _anything_ I can do to help him.” 

“Oh but,” Amy pulled the Doctor to a halt as he searched the console’s underside for something, “didn’t you say that if she saw you, she’d burn up?”

The Doctor’s sullen face turned to face hers, that staunch defiance in his eyes made her take a step back. “Yes, I did say that and it is still true, which is why I need Rory. He being a nurse will come in handy here, he’s just got to do as I say.”

“Which is what?” Rory hopped down to their level, doing up his coat as he did.

The Doctor handed Rory a small white box. “These were one of many gifts from an anti-alien organisation known as Torchwood. They were gifted to me when it was re-established by Gwen Cooper.” He undid the cap, “they are cameras built into contact lenses. You wear these and I can see everything you do, keep _this_ ,” he held up an earpiece, “in your ear for me to talk you through what you will need to do. Now,” clapping his hands he raced back up to the console, “by the time we get to where we need to be, the TARDIS will have made a solution that will save his life. I think… I _hope_.”

“Do I stay in here with you?” Amy asked him.

“No, you go with Rory, I’ll give you this,” he handed her a pad of paper, “psychic paper, just tell them that you’re a medical student names Rose Tyler and Rory is your teacher.” 

“I’ll go get into something a little smarter then whilst we get there.” Amy hurried off as Rory, blinking a couple of times, leant against the console.

“This Wilfred must mean a lot to you.” He spoke.

“Oh yeah, Donna’s whole family do… the only thing is…” The Doctor closed his eyes, willing the pain of remembrance to go away, “none of them know what I look like anymore. I said goodbye to them and then regenerated into this!” he waved his hands up and down. “Well, when I say I said goodbye, what I mean is that I made sure they could see me and then just walked away after seeing them smile… the only one I spoke to was the last one I saw… ironically she was the first face my previous face had seen.”

“And that would have been…” the Doctor looked over at Rory to see him racking his brain.

“Rose. Rose Tyler.” The Doctor finished, his hearts aching causing him to flinch. “She was one in a million. Someone I could trust without asking. Someone who trusted me without question.”

“She was someone you loved?” Rory asked, his voice gentle.

The Doctor gave a sad smile for an answer as Amy came in.

Moments later, he watched as Rory and Amy made their way through the hospital, the feed from the lenses worked a charm, the earpieces gave him the sound that Rory could hear.  
He saw doctors and nurses going from place to place, beds full of the sick, injured and/or dying, visitors, family. Rory and Amy finally got to the ICU and went into the room with Wilfred Mott and the Doctor leant on the console heavily at the sight.  
The old war dog was lay in the bed, wires that monitored his heart rate attached to his chest and finger, IV drips full of some medicine or other, he was sound asleep with an oxygen mask on his face.  
“Rory, you’ll need to put that solution I gave you into his arm. Then wait a few minutes, keep looking at the monitors when you’re done.”  
Rory did as instructed. There were a few tense moments before the Doctor started to laugh. “It worked! We did it!” 

Rory and Amy smiled and hugged each other, _“what now, Doctor?”_ Rory spoke softly into the earpiece.

“Go and find Donna and her family then repeat what I tell you. Remember, keep your face indifferent. Amy, come back to the TARDIS, we’ll get out as soon as they’ve seen him.” 

He watched Rory and Amy part ways as Rory entered a room containing the Noble family. “There she is,” he breathed.  
Donna Temple-Noble, still looked as she had the last time he had seen her, fire-red hair, blue eyes filled with concern.  
Sylvia Noble, greying blonde hair and tear stained eyes.  
There was another man that he didn’t recognise, but he assumed that was Shaun Temple. He was a man around Donna’s age, his skin the same colour as Mickey’s, his eyes were a dark chocolate, his face was one of care and concern, confirming to the Doctor that this man was right for Donna.  
She had chosen good this time.

 _“Mrs Noble, Mr and Mrs Temple-Noble.”_ Rory repeated his words. _“my name is Rory Williams, I’ve been assigned to your grandfather.”_

Donna looked like she wanted to scream at Rory, the Doctor allowed a smile, _“how is he?”_ she asked.

“Tell her that he’s stable.” He did. “We’ve put a stent in his artery to help with the blood flow. We’ll have to keep him in for the next few nights just to make sure he’s okay. But apart from that I believe he’ll make a full recovery.” The Doctor spoke these words and Rory repeated them, hoping that Sylvia could see that Rory was repeating. Hoping…

He watched as Sylvia sat down, relief making her weak in the knees. _“Thank you,”_ Donna said, _“when can we see him?”_

“Rory, repeat this to them.” The Doctor ordered, wondering silently why Amy was taking so long to get back to the TARDIS. 

_“You can go in now, if you’d like. But he may not be awake.”_ He heard Rory warn as he held the door open for them and led them down to the room containing Wilf. 

He let them enter first before the Doctor called his to stop, “what the hell is _that_?!” they both exclaimed.  
There was a golden misted glow hovering over Wilfred Mott, Donna stared at it, cocking her head to the side as it shot at her, disappearing as she screamed.  
As she screamed, there was an identical scream from outside the doors to the TARDIS.

The Doctor raced out of the doors to see a golden mist identical to the one on his monitor taking Amy, “AMY!” he shouted.

_“Doctor, Donna’s been taken!”_ There was a cry from Rory as the Doctor heard some kind of teleportation in use on Rory’s end as he, too, was taken.


	4. Stolen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We are introduced to three new characters here, what are their connections? And where is the Doctor?

**Martha**

The longer Martha stared at the key in her hand, the more she came to realise that the glow wasn’t coming from the key itself.   
It was a separate entity, clustering around the key and climbing its way up her hand attaching itself to her wrist like an ethereal bracelet. “Okay,” she looked back at the technology in front of her. “This is _not_ coming from the device we have found, so it’s something different.”

_“Is it causing you any harm, Martha?”_ Gwen asked.

Martha knew she could see the same thing as Martha due to the contact lenses. Apparently, Gwen had also gifted them to the Doctor, who Gwen had seen recently. Martha still had to grill Gwen about her reasons for why and how she had contacted the Doctor, when no one had seen him since… well a year wasn’t a long time for a Time Lord, but it was for her, and the others left behind.   
“No, it’s quite a pleasant feeling, actually… oh and Mickey’s got one too…” Martha noted.

Mickey looked puzzled, “yeah, only mine’s just come off of this thing.” He pointed to the device.

_“Stay where you both are, we’ll come to you. See if we can figure out what it is.”_ Gwen’s voice already sounded echoey indicating she was already on the move to them, possibly about to get into the car.

Martha and Mickey stepped away from the device as it began to float, “negative on the staying put, Gwent. The device is moving… ah!” Martha screamed and reached out for mickey as the golden mist clutched her wrist and took her to God-knows where.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Unknown**

The figure looked at the monitor in front of her, trying not to look at the walls around her, her hot breath coming out in bursts of steam as she exhaled each time.   
It was _freezing_ here!

The female stood at a mere five and half foot and her brother stood a massive six foot. They had snow white skin and ombré blue hair that started sapphire blue and ended in mint green. Their eyes were aquamarine.  
Her name was Felicia – that was what _The Giver_ called her – her brother was named Felix – again _The Giver_ named her brother – she was only in her nineteenth year of life; her brother was in his twenty-third year of life.   
Of course, Felicia and Felix were not their real names… but _The Giver_ had insisted that they took these as their names. 

_The Giver_ … he was a wonder. She and Felix had found him several months ago. He had given them and their people so much, the least Felicia and Felix could do was obey their parents and go with him. Their native language had no translation for what he had called himself, so they called him _The Giver_ … he had given Felix and Felicia their new names. 

“Any news, Felicia?” _The Giver’s_ sudden appearance startled her. “Are they here?”

Felicia nodded, “they are beginning to come, Giver.” Beeping on the console before her warned her of a potential health risk, “Giver, one of them appears to be dying. A possible result of the teleportation.”

“No. That’s not it.” _The Giver_ breathed. “Have Felix bring me the device we were making, bring it to the cell.” He raced off, his already pale complexion paling further.

Felicia stared after him, open mouthed, before coming back to her sense and calling her brother, “Felix, bring the device to the cells, _the Giver_ requires it.”

_“Then it starts?”_

“Yes, Brother, it starts.” The line went dead as Felix did as instructed. Afterall, no one tested the wrath of _the Giver_ , if they did, they would end up as countless of Felicia’s brethren had, frozen and encased in ice all around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short one here, next one is going to be lengthy.


	5. Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Troubles are starting to trickle into the lives of many. Only one seems to be getting happier as others are beginning to find their own happiness threatened.

**Rose**

Rose stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, her eyes had returned to their natural colour days ago, but she still saw it in her reflection.  
John sidled up behind her and wrapped tentative arms around her waist, kissing the nape of her neck. “Come back to me, Rose.” He whispered in her ear.

She leant back and sighed, “sorry.” She apologised, turning in his arms and met him for an Eskimo kiss. “I’m just confused… the last time that happened I…”

“You went back to the Earth you were born on.” John finished her sentence when the words got stuck in her throat.  
She saw a smile on his face before his lips met hers, “it’s okay, Rose. It’s okay to miss him.”

She felt him tighten one of his arms around her waist before he broke the kiss, stooped and hooked the other under her legs and carried her bridal style to their bed.  
_Their bed_ … now there was a term she enjoyed using.  
He placed her down gently and she watched him slip under the covers, let him pull her close so that she could hear his one, singular, heartbeat. “How can you say that to me?”

She heard him sigh, this had been a regular conversation since they had taken their relationship to the next level. Rose knew that she shouldn’t question his reasons for letting her grieve for a man that he had been from, but she had to wonder, why did he let her?  
She had cried herself to sleep for over a week after the Doctor had left her with his Metacrisis copy, every single night, alone.  
Until John had heard her sobbing on the third night, then he would wait to hear her sobbing – she tried to stay quiet – before coming into her room and scooping her up into his arms and rocking her back and forth until she fell asleep. Every morning she’d awake to find herself tucked in tight with a post-it note on her phone telling her that it was okay, that he understood.

“I say it, because I _know_. I know how he felt to walk away from you, Rose. So of course, I can tell you its okay to miss him. I know _he_ misses _you_ ; I feel that every time I hear you cry because of him. I don’t get angry…” she frowned, his voice seemed to be cracking, “I cry with you, so that you don’t cry alone.” 

She looked up to see that he was, indeed, crying. “I never knew…”

“You never asked.” He stated.

She put her head back down on his chest, “do you know if he still looks like you?”

“Oh, he regenerated a while back, now. He has two new companions from what I was told.”

Rose frowned, “told? Who told you?”

He kissed the top of her head, “his TARDIS. She knew that we would end up together like this, so she gave me the necessary information, in the event you wanted to know.”

Rose made an ‘oh’ sound and smiled. “As long as he’s happy, then that’s fine.”

“He wasn’t when he regenerated, he didn’t want to go. He threw _quite_ the tantrum. I really felt that when she showed me.” Rose sat up and looked at John. “He misses all of you. But you most of all.”

Rose smiled, kissing those tears of his away. “Thank you, Doctor.” She always called him Doctor, everyone did, if they knew the original. Only people who didn’t know him called him ‘John’.

She felt a hand on the back of her neck pull her in, lips met hers, their mouths opened in unison and tongues began their dance.  
She followed him down, leaning over him as his free hand roamed down to the small of her back, coming back up along her spine under her night shirt.

The sound of glass breaking followed by a whizzing and a soft _thwomp_ from above the headboard had John shoving Rose of the bed with a shout of “get down!”  
Rose hit the floor, John following her, “stay down, crawl, go, go, _go_!” 

She stayed on her hands and knees and the two of them crawled as fast as they could out of the room. Down the far end of the hall, she could hear Tony crying, “mummy!” he screamed.

“Rose!” John called. She was on her feet and dashing, barefoot into her little brother’s room, bulldozing into the room and stumbled back as something heavy blocked the door.  
In the split second she reeled, John caught her and shoved the door back, “get Tony!” he shouted.

“Come on, sweetheart!” Rose clutched the screaming toddle to her chest and ran out of the door, several shots were fired behind her as John met her, took her hand and they ran through the house, spying Jackie and Pete coming out of their room.  
“Run!” Rose shouted.

The family dashed down the stairs and out the door, **“STOP! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING!”** a voice called through a bull horn.

Rose felt John clutch her, Pete held Jackie close, leading his wife over to their son and daughter. Tony was still screaming as Rose tried to sooth him, “it’s okay, Tony, I’m here, Rose is here, mummy and daddy are here, John’s here, we’re all here.” She kept up the mantra, bouncing the toddler in her arms.  
She saw John share a look with Pete. “No heroics, boys.” Rose scolded, sending them both a warning look.

“Too late,” John snarled, catching the device that Pete threw in his direction, “DOWN!” Rose hit the floor by pure instinct alone, Jackie seconds behind her.  
What followed was a blinding light of blue, followed by several cut off cries and shots that never hit. “Circular time lock,” John smirked, pulling Rose to her feet, Tony still clutched and crying in her arms. “They can’t move, but we can. Gives us enough time to get dressed and get out of here.” Pete led the way to the house; Jackie took Tony from Rose.

“Where do we go?” Jackie asked, her frightened eyes filling with tears, “we have no where to go!” 

“We’ll figure that out once we’re away from here, Jackie, look at me.” John took Jackie’s shoulders, “we just need to get away from here, once the heat has died down, then we can come back, okay?” 

Rose watched as her mum looked into those eyes, eyes that even _she_ trusted irrevocably. “Yeah, you’re right, Doctor. Sorry.”

John smiled, “shock will do that to you, Jackie, don’t worry.”

Within an hour everyone was in the car, suitcases packed, Tony now sound asleep in his car seat. “We’ll have to stop at the bank.” Pete stated, “draw out what we have.”

“No need,” John said, “Rose, Jackie and I have been doing that since Rose’s eyes began glowing.” 

Pete gave a chuckle, “got yourself an internal warning system, there, Rose.” He joked.

“Yeah…” Rose said sleepily as she leant her head against John, “guess so.” She slipped into a light slumber as the countryside vanished. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Donna**

The first thing Donna was aware of was the temperature; it was _freezing_! Opening her eyes with a gasp, she looked around her to see waves up to ten feet tall, frozen solid. The black slab had a silver shine to it from the moon. Was she in the Antarctic?  
“How the hell did I get here?!” She was grateful for not taking off her coat.  
Getting to her feet, she walked, noting that she was walking on a frozen sea. “I hope there are no hungry polar bears out here.” She joked to herself.

Slipping and sliding her way through the waves, she was struck with a sudden familiarity. Like she had been here before. _“SNOWBALL FIGHT!”_ she heard her own voice in her head as people she had never seen before ran past her.  
She clutched her head, white hot pain racing through her head as images assaulted her every sense. She gave out a shrill cry as she felt gentle arms wrapped themselves around her.

“Hold on, Donna, I’ve got you.”  
She looked up with a pained expression as her vision blurred and she passed out.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**The Doctor (10)**

How long he had sat there, huddled in that place, he didn’t know. But a prickle of heat on the back of his neck alerted him to a presence nearby.  
He uncurled himself and groaned as how stiff the cold had made him. Flexing blood back into his fingers, the Doctor took unsteady steps in the direction of the feeling. 

His body had warmed up and was moving easier by the time he reached the reason for his feeling. “No… it _can’t_ be!”  
Forgetting that he was frozen to the bone and colder still, the Doctor raced forward, hit the ice with his knees and slid up to the last person he expected to see here, wrapping his arms around her.  
Donna was here! Her head in her hands, crying in pain, “hold on Donna, I’ve got you.”  
She looked up with a pained expression, eyes filled with tears as she went into a fit in his arms.

Looking behind him, he knew how far he had to go to get back to the TARDIS, he gave a frustrated growl; Donna would be dead before he got her back.  
“Give her to me.” He stood up and over Donna, protecting her from the figure in front of him. “Doctor, give her to me.”

He frowned, “do I know you?” 

The figure in front of him wore a mask, full faced and in the style of a Japanese kitsune, only it was black with patters in various shades of blue and a gold outline. A black fur-lined coat and leather gloves completed the look, the figure’s hair was hidden by the hood of the coat, the eyes were too far away to get a good look at the colour.  
“Not yet.”

The Doctor glanced back at Donna, “why should I give my friend to you?”

The figure shot a look over his shoulder, “I have a device here, that will save her life, return her memory to her without her burning up.”

The Doctor had to be dead. That’s it, the cold had gotten to him. “Sh-she has no memory?”

“Oh… it would appear you are the correct one, after all.” The figure held out the device. “Take it. Save her, Doctor, take her back to the beach whilst she is unconscious. Then come and find me, come _alone_. All will become clear when you’ve found me.”

The Doctor was forced by a young man of around twenty to take the device, then he looked up to the figure. “Who are you?”

The figure turned away, “until you come to me, you can call me The Giver.” 

As the Giver walked away, the Doctor spun round and placed the device onto Donna’s head and switched it on.  
It flared to life; its purpose was to return lost memories. Donna’s memory… had he done this? He didn’t remember doing it… it had been his _intention_ in order to save her life… but then the _incident_ happened.  
This was his chance of a do-over! His face split into a grin as he scooped her up and carried her – with surprising ease – back to the beach where the TARDIS still sat waiting.

For the first time in a year his hearts finally felt warm!


	6. Familiarity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor goes in search of the Ponds and Donna.

**Martha**

“WHOA!” Martha landed hard on her front.  
She groaned and moved her body as individual parts to make sure nothing was broken. She felt cold sand under her fingers, a bitter chill on her face.

“Martha!” Mickey’s voice was right above her, “come on, babe, I’ve got you!” She felt Mickey roll her into his arms.

“I’m okay, Mickey.” She groaned, giving a cough. She sat up, listening to his sigh of relief. Looking around her she noticed a midnight blue sky and a moon. A frozen sea opened up in front of them. “What the-?” she breathed, “how the _hell_ did we get here?”

She accepted Mickey’s hand as he hauled her to her feet, “I’ll bet it was that device.”   
Martha pulled out her phone, there was signal. She dialled the one number that came to mind. “Who are you callin’?”

“The Doctor. If _we_ are here, there’s a chance that others are here too, and one in particular will burn up if she remembers.”

“MARTHA!” Mickey shouted as a group of humanoids cocked weapons at Mickey and one brought the butt of their weapon harshly to the side of Martha’s head. She hit the ground as an unfamiliar voice called out to her.

_“Martha?! Can you hear me? MARTHA?!”_ The figure that had hit her picked up the phone and switched it off as Martha’s vision went black.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**The Doctor (11)**

The Doctor made to walk back into the TARDIS when a hand touched his shoulder. “Doctor? Is that you?” A woman’s voice, Sylvia.

Turning to face her, the Doctor gave a small, nervous, smile. “Hello, Sylvia.”

Sylvia Noble frowned in confusion, “I don’t understand.”

Spying Donna’s husband behind her, he shook his head. “How’s Wilf doing?” he asked.

Sylvia blinked, “he woke up as soon as Donna disappeared. Heard that nurse say ‘Doctor’ and insisted we looked for that.” She pointed at the TARDIS behind him. “I was going to ask if you really were him, but you know my dad, so that answered that.”

The Doctor felt his hearts flutter in guilt, he owned this family the truth… or at least what he knew right now anyway.  
“Let’s go and see him, then, and I’ll tell you what I know.” He looked at Shaun and held out his hand, “hello, Shaun Temple-Noble, I’m the Doctor. And have I got a story for you!”   
They entered the room where Wilfred Mott was trying to get out of bed, “aha! Caught you, sir!” The Doctor announced.

Wilfred shot a look at the Doctor and said, “who are you, then?”

“Oh, come on, Wilf! Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me!” The Doctor said gently, “it was my honour, after all.”

He watched as Wilf looked at him, frowning, then his eyes went wide, “oh my god! Doctor! It’s you!” The elderly man grabbed the Doctor’s hand and shook it reverently, “oh my stars above! Have – have you found, Donna yet?” 

“Not yet, dad,” Sylvia interjected, “the Doctor said he’s going to fill everyone in,” she cocked her head at Shaun, “then he’ll tell us what he knows.”

An hour later, Shaun looked at the Doctor, his eyes wide, “so, let me get this right, Donna has had this whole other life but doesn’t remember it? And if she did her mind would burn up and she’d die?” 

“That’s about the gist of it, yeah.” The Doctor had spared no small thing, everything was told to its explicit detail. Even telling them about Amy, Rory and River. “Which is why I’m so worried, because that same golden mist that took Donna has taken away Amy and Rory as well, which means that Donna’s life is now at stake. Fortunately,” the Doctor got up and waved his hands, “Rory and Amy know about Donna and everyone else, so they can at the very least try to make Donna think that she’s in some kind of escape room or something along those lines.”

Wilfred, who was surprisingly attentive – probably from the solution that the Doctor had told Rory to give him – cleared his throat, “so how are you going to find Donna and your two friends?” 

The Doctor looked over at Shaun, “with his help.”

The desired reaction appeared on Shaun’s face, “I don’t understand. What am I supposed to do?”

“You’re going to be coming with me! Because of,” leaning over, he plucked a singular strand of red hair from his coat sleeve, “you have the DNA needed to track Donna, we find her, bring her straight back to my ship to stabilise her, then we get Amy and Rory and whoever else happens to be there and take them all back to their proper time and place before EastEnders!” 

“What can I do, though?” Shaun asked, “I’m nothing special.”

_“I can’t even change a plug!”_ The Doctor was slapped with a memory of Donna saying the same thing.

“Funny thing about people who say they’re nothing special,” he said, getting into Shaun’s personal space, “they’re usually the most important person in the whole of creation.” His eyes were serious as they bored into Shaun’s.  
“Now, I believe Wilfred when he says – and my own eyes when I see – that you love Donna. So two things are going to happen, one; you are going to prove to Wilfred that you will brave the scary dangers that is _my_ life to save you wife, and two; you are going to prove to _me_ that you will brave the scary dangers that is _my_ life to save you wife, and number three, which I have just made up, you will never, ever, _ever_ , say that you are nothing special, because it takes a special person to love my Donna!” 

Shaun blinked and squared his shoulders, nodding. “I’m not going to li, I’m terrified, confused and in awe at all of this, but I will endeavour to do my best, Doctor.”

The Doctor clapped him on the shoulders. “Good man!” he planted a kiss on Sylvia’s hand, saluted Wilf and said “I promise you both that Donna will be brought back safe and sound! Let’s go, Shaun!”

“You go get ‘em sir!” Wilfred shouted after them.

“Be careful, both of you!” Sylvia shouted.

The first thing the Doctor did was introduce Shaun to the TARDIS, the whole ‘bigger on the inside, run around the outside to believe what he was seeing’ happened quite quick before Shaun remembered the gravity of the situation and asked the Doctor questions as they went.  
“So where exactly are we going?”

They had been travelling through the Vortex in concentrated silence for over an hour now and the Doctor was beginning to get worried.  
“Nowhere, right now.” He answered, “the TARDIS is working properly, the strand of hair is _definitely_ Donna’s, but she doesn’t appear to _be_ anywhere. It doesn’t make any sense!” he ran frustrated hands through his hair and growled. “This isn’t _fair_!” he snapped, “Donna’s life is on the line here! Oh, whoever has taken her is _getting_ it when I get my hands on them!”

“You really cared about her, don’t you?” Shaun’s voice broke his tirade. 

Looking over at Shaun, the Doctor nodded, “I regret what I did to her every single day, but there was no other way to save her life, still isn’t, and believe me I’ve tried looking.”  
He watched Shaun approach and place a hand on his shoulder.

“Thank you, for caring for her this much.”

The silence that followed was broken by the sound of a phone ringing, the Doctor’s eyes lit up, “Martha!” Racing round the console, Shaun following, he grabbed the mobile phone that he was surprised to see intact let alone still in the TARDIS and answered.  
He heard the sound of Mickey Smith – another old friend? – shouting for Martha as he heard a grunt and the sound of something hard hitting flesh, “Martha?!” The Doctor shouted, trying to get the coordinates to her location, “can you hear me?! MARTHA?!” The line went dead.

The Doctor gave an angry scream, he had lost the signal before he had a chance to follow it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go!!


	7. Surprise!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who knew Hisame was inhabited? Certainly not Mickey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait on this one, everyone! I just needed to recharge my inner TARDIS after ending up on a parallel world.
> 
> Anyway enjoy!
> 
> _Doctor Who theme begins!_

**The Doctor (10)**

“There you go.” He said gently, placing Donna into the TARDIS, “nice and warm in here, Donna.” 

He could scarcely believe it; _Donna_ was here! Donna was _here_! He checked her vitals on the monitor, grinned and gave a cheer, “ha! This is _brilliant_!”  
He now understood what was going on. 

Donna Temple-Noble, “oh, she’s married? That’s new!” He noted gleefully, then the smile disappeared when his TARDIS informed him of what had happened to give her amnesia, “well,” he mused glumly, “it _was_ what I was going to have to do to her if she hadn’t….” he stopped and glanced down at the red-head on the floor.  
“You are going to give me _such_ an earful when you wake up.” He mused happily.

_Come alone. All will become clear when you’ve found me.”_

_“Who are you?”_

_“Until you come to me, you can call me The Giver.”_

“The Giver…” the Doctor spoke aloud to himself, rolling the title around his tongue and through his teeth, “nope! Doesn’t ring any bells.” 

He stooped to check Donna’s pulse and noticed that she had lost a bit of weight, rising to check the scanner, he found that she had not been eating well for at least a month. “This isn’t dietary… something must be wrong with you.”  
The TARDIS corrected him by showing him Wilfred Mott in the hospital. “Oh…” Poor Wilf! He was a good soul.

The scanner suddenly became noisy, indicating that someone was out there, another friend?  
Exiting the TARDIS, the Doctor squinted against a sudden rush of wind that kicked up sand and ice. Spying couple making their way towards him.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Mickey**

Mickey fought against his captors, trying to get them to stop so that he could check on Martha, “look, I’ll stop strugglin’, just let me see my wife first!” 

“Silence, Mickey Smith.” The guard that had clobbered Martha spoke, crisp and clear English, it was the kind that had no accent. “ _The Giver_ requires you and Martha Jones, I do not wish to harm you any more than necessary.”  
He waved his weapon in warning.

Mickey stopped struggling, he passed by a rising tower of a wave frozen solid, spying marks on it, he recognised them as graffiti; Bad Wolf.  
“Hisame?” Mickey wondered aloud.

“You have been to our planet before?” the leader asked.

Mickey nodded, “yeah, around two years ago… we’d come here for a bit of fun before everyone had to leave,” Mickey sniffed at the memory of everyone laughing as Jackie and Sarah Jane brought trays of ‘cup-o’-tea-a-la-Jackie’, the Doctor leaning back against the wave as Rose carved out the words into the ice before joining the Doctor. He remembered fondly of how the Doctor wrapped an arm around her and they leant into each other…   
“What’s your name, by the way?” Mickey asked, making an attempt to be civil.

“ _The Giver_ renamed us. I was once Ocola Arb of the Hisame Foxtrot clan. Now I am merely Oleg.”

“So, what would you _like_ me to call you?” Mickey couldn’t quite understand why anyone would force someone to change their name.

“You are to call me Oleg, it is as _The Giver_ mandates.” Oleg… no, Mickey corrected himself, his name is Ocola seemed to be miffed at being called that.

“Hows about I call you Oleg once we get within earshot of this Giver, Ocola?” Mickey offered.

Ocola smiled, “nothing would please me more. But it _must_ be Oleg.”

Mickey shrugged, “okay, then. Whoa!” Mickey slipped on the ice, ready to feel the pain of landing on his backside, but Ocola had caught him, dropping his weapon as he did.  
“Thanks, mate.”

Ocola frowned, “how am I your mate? You are male.”

Mickey’s eyes widened as he stumbled to correct himself, “sorry! Sorry, it’s an Earth-word for friend. Not the kind of mate that you… well – not the female kind. I meant mate as in friend.”

Ocola processed this information, “ah. I see, then what would you call the female with whom you wish sexual relations with?”

“Well,” Mickey and Ocola continued to walk, “Martha is my wife, we married a year ago. So, in the sexual case, she is my ‘mate for life’, but we dated for a bit-”

“Dated?”

Mickey needed to change his vocabulary, “courted?” a nod, “yeah we courted, for around seven months, getting to know each other, going out to dinner, on picnics, the odd job.”

“You work together?”

“Yeah, she’s a doctor… healer. And I’m a mercenary. We actually stop minor extra-terrestrial threats on our planet.”

Ocola made a sound, “so you hunt those that come from other planets?” 

Mickey nodded, “yeah, but we only resort to violence if they leave us with no other option, like a Sontaran or a Dalek. Now, you,” he pointed at Ocola, “you seem nice enough, but I notice the weapon and I think to myself, be careful, he’s a soldier. That way I don’t make a mistake and offend you.” Mickey tried to calm the situation before he made himself out to be a killer; the Doctor would probably throw him into a black hole if he did that.

“I see, so you assess the situation and use the necessary force, be it physical or verbal, to resolve it. Ah, we are here, at last! Now we can get out of the cold.” 

Mickey looked up and saw nothing, looking down he saw a spiral staircase carved into the ice, leading down, down and further down into the dark, “this was _not_ here the last time we were here.” Mickey mused, watching as the guard carrying Martha began to shift nervously. 

“Martha Jones awakens.” Ocola surmised.

Mickey walked slowly towards Martha, “easy, babe, don’t make any sudden moves, you’re safe.” Mickey soothed as Martha sat up and saw their captors. “They didn’t mean to hurt you.” He soothed, giving her a look that said ‘play along’.

“Can you stand?” Ocola asked, offering Martha a gloved hand. 

Martha took it, nodding, “yeah.” She looked at him, “don’t suppose you have my communications device do you?”

“Your mobile phone is in my pocket. I am afraid that I cannot give it to you.” Ocola guided the two of them down the staircase. 

Mickey held Martha’s hand as they descended, hoping that Martha’s last call had got through.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Amy**

Amy had been on her way back to the TARDIS when she felt something akin to a nettle sting on her wrist, “what the - ?” she looked down and saw a golden mist locking itself on to her wrist like a bracelet. The stinging sensation shot through her arm and down her spine as she felt the ground beneath her shift, she screamed.  
“Ow!” she gasped, “oh it’s cold!” she wrapped her arms around herself to try and get warm, but only being in a long-sleeved t-shirt, it was an impossible task.  
“Doctor?! Rory?!” Amy shouted, hoping one of them was with her.

“Amy?!” Rory’s voice! 

“RORY!” she shouted, trying to find the direction it had dome from, spying someone coming towards her, she grinned with chattering teeth and she fell into the arms of her husband.  
“Where are we?”

“No idea, are you alright?” 

“Cold. You?”

“Freezing.”

“Listen, we need to find Donna, there’s a chance that she’s here with us.” Rory explained what he had seen after she had left.

“So, wherever we are, there is a woman out there who could burn up and _die_ if we don’t find her first.”

“Right… oh god it’s cold!” Rory, shivering profusely against the freezing wind, took Amy’s hand and they began to walk.

As they walked, Amy noticed that they were walking on ice, “this is a frozen sea.” She shouted to be heard over the noise of the wind. 

“It’ll be hard for us to find anything in this wind, we’ll most likely _freeze_ to death first.” Rory replied.

They continued to walk for a long time, the walk keeping them warmer than they would have been if they had stopped.   
After a long time of seeing nothing but a never-ending plateau of ice and snow, Amy saw the makings of structures. “Rory, look!”  
Their pace quickened at the prospect of _some_ form of shelter. They stopped and Amy inwardly groaned whilst looking up with awe, “they’re waves, _frozen_ waves!” 

These frozen waves offered up little in the way of relief from the wind, but Amy and Rory huddled behind one anyway.  
“Hi, there.” A voice called from another wave.  
Amy looked over at the man now walking towards them, for that was what he was; a man. He stood over six foot, thin and really great hair. Amy saw that he was wearing a long brown coat, a brown pinstripe two piece with matching tie, a white shirt and… where those converse trainers?  
“Are you two lost, or something?”   
He spoke with an English accent; it held a little cockney in it.

“Or something,” Amy said, the cold becoming unbearable again. She felt something heavy get draped over her shoulders and found the man had given her his coat; “thank you. But won’t you get cold?” 

The man smiled a great big toothy grin, “nah! I’ll be alright!” He turned to Rory, “sorry I can’t offer you one, though.”

“I’ll be alright,” Rory mimicked. “I’m Rory, by the way, this is Amy.”

“Nice to meet you, Rory and Amy,” he held out his hand, “I’m the Doctor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well now, what have we here? The Ponds are meeting the Doctor?
> 
> Kudos and Review everyone! I am super happy with how you're all enjoying this!!


	8. New Meets Old

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get a little rough for Rose

**Amy**

Amy blinked. “The Doctor?” she asked, not quite believing it.

He seemed to frown, “yeah, that’s me!”

“But…” Amy’s mind wasn’t thinking straight, must be the cold, “but you can’t be the Doctor. You’re not wearing a bow tie for starters.”

Something must have clicked in his mind because he made an elongated “oh!” He grinned, “ _that_ explains why I don’t recognise you! I haven’t met you yet! You must be from a future regeneration!” He flung his arms around the two and Amy felt herself being steered forwards. “Come on, then, we’ll get you two into something more weather appropriate and we’ll see where we’re at.”

Amy and Rory shared a look as the Doctor stepped forward and led the way, “we can’t tell him, Amy.” Rory said.

“I know.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**The Doctor (10)**

The Doctor reached the beach where his TARDIS waited for him, her colour standing in contrast to the snow drifts that now covered the sand.  
“Here we are, then! You can find something in the wardrobe.” 

He was more than a little shocked as Rory pushed past him with a “Donna!” 

“Oh, you… you know her, then?” he asked.

“The version of you that we know had me save her grandfather’s life. I got transported here as Donna vanished too.” Rory explained.

“I would hazard a guess that whatever it is that picked her up, picked us up, too, maybe others.” The red-head, Amy, chimed in. 

The Doctor hummed in thought as he watched Rory check her vitals, “what is this?” Rory tried to pull the device off of Donna’s head and the Doctor felt cold.

“DON’T TOUCH THAT!” he shouted, taking the two humans by surprise. He had taken himself by surprise, too. He was getting… angry?  
“Don’t touch her.” He growled. 

Rory held up his hands and stood up. “Sorry, Doctor, I didn’t mean any harm.”

The Doctor took a breath and calmed himself, “of course you didn’t.” he said sincerely, “I overreacted, I’m sorry.”  
He offered a hand to Rory, who took it without question _they must trust me, then_ , he thought.

“Anyway, you said something about a wardrobe?” Amy broke the silence that was forming.

“What? Oh! Yes, down the hall, fourth door on the left. Find yourselves something warm and we’ll go back out and see if we can find anyone else.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Rose**

She gave one final retch, sat up and flushed.  
“Here.” John’s gentle voice was like an opiate, she closed her eyes took a gulp of water, rinsed, took another and swallowed.  
“Better?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

John rubbed her back tenderly, “that’s the second time today.” 

Rose nodded, “yeah, I don’t know what’s happening.” She lied. 

Getting to her feet, she washed her face and returned to the bedroom, continuing to dress as John leant against the doorframe.  
Rose knew that look.

“I’ll ask Jackie to keep an eye on you whilst I’m out.” He said, stepping in to kiss her, “be safe today, my Lupus Malum.” He purred in her ear before walking out of the little flat the two of them had bought six months prior to running away.

They had been on the run for around a week now. Jackie, Pete and Tony had moved into a small house, whilst Rose and John had bought the Parallel World’s version of her old flat on the Powell Estate.  
So far, no one had found them, her mum was safe, John and Pete were still coming and going from Torchwood, each taking a different route there and a different route back. Rose and Jackie would stay at home, one going to the other’s home for safety.  
Today it was Jackie’s turn to stay with Rose.  
Rose had managed to keep the vomiting a secret from Jackie until lunchtime.  
“You alright, sweetheart?” Jackie’s voice sounded from the kitchen.

Rose, who had stopped vomiting about five minutes ago, was staring at her hands. _Oh my God!_ she thought.  
“Mum…” she said quietly, as she came through.

Jackie was by Rose’s side in a heartbeat. “What is it, Rose?” 

Rose held up the little test strip in her hand. “I’m pregnant!” she gasped.

She watched as her mum’s eyes widened, a shrill cry of joy rang through the flat as the two cackled away at the news.  
Hours went by, with Jackie telling Rose all kinds of horror stories about cravings and mood swings, but the two were happy as could be and were now talking about the weather when Rose felt something warm in her eyes.  
Standing up, she went to the mirror and gasped. “Mum, it’s happening again!” 

“What is?” John’s voice met her ears as he and Pete came into the flat, both men stopped short, seeing the golden mist, once again, in Rose’s eyes.

“What _is_ this?” John growled, “what the hell is going on?” these questions were not aimed at Rose, but Rose shook her head and opened her eyes to find the mist gone.

“It’s gone now,” she announced, before breaking out into a big grin. Sliding up into John’s concerned embrace, she kissed him. “I know why I’ve been feeling ill.”

“Oh, so that’s why you’re in a better mood that yesterday.” John teased, kissing Rose’s nose.

“Shut up!” Rose laughed, sitting down and patting the sofa next to her. John happily joined her and leant into her.  
Rose stopped him with a hand, “don’t you want to know what it is?” she teased, John’s eyes narrowed curiously, giving only a nod in reply.  
Taking his outstretched hand, Rose guided it to her belly. “You’re going to be a dad!” 

She felt John still. Looking into his eyes she saw the cogs of his brain working overtime to process what she had just said. “You’re not…” he breathed; his words stirred a memory of one who wore his face saying the same thing.

“I am!” she whispered, tears forming and spilling over as she laughed, “I’m pregnant!” 

John laughed too, his whole face lighting up in joyous disbelief, he pulled Rose off of the sofa and into his arms, spinning her around the tiny flat. “Oh, I can’t believe it! Oh Rose, I…” she watched as he ran his hands through his hair, that smile growing wider and wider, “you a _mum_ … _me_ a _dad_!” he exclaimed, scooping her back into his arms and kissing her hard.

Few days later, the family arrived at Torchwood Tower. Rose had managed to get something to help with the morning sickness. She still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that she was going to be a mum.  
_I should be scared stiff of everything thing around me,_ she thought, _but I’m not…_ She looked over at John as his hand squeezed hers in return to her grip having unconsciously tightened.

There was a commotion on the top floor when they arrived that had Pete rushing over to the SIC – this world’s version of Yvonne Hartman – “Yvonne, what’s happened?”

Rose wandered over to the desks, John, Mum and Tony – who was supposed to be in the day care, but wanted to stay with mum – joining her as Pete and Yvonne starting talking hurriedly.  
She walked past her desk, then ringing. Her mind slowed. Pain from her shoulder bristled across her back as she slid down the overturned desk. Blurry shapes in front of her slowly came into focus. It was her feet covered in dust, insulation and the remnant of the wall.

Rose could see debris scatter as her dad made his way to her mum. Tony’s feet moved out from under mum as she rolled onto her side to let him up.  
She saw John; hand pressed to his head as he stumbled towards her. She could see his mouth moving, but heard nothing.

She shook her head to try and clear the ringing, John grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, green lasers shot through the newly-made hole in the wall, freezing the armed guards.  
Rose bumped into John as he stopped in his retreat, looking round him, she saw that these were the same men as the night they had left the mansion. 

Now that they were out in the daylight, Rose could see that they were albino, their hair (that she could see) was blue.  
The leader jumped up on to a nearby desk and began to shout, but Rose still couldn’t hear anything. Neither, apparently, could John, as he made hand signals to indicate that their explosion had made them all temporarily deaf.  
The leader nodded and held up a sphere the size of a cricket ball. A pink laser emitted from it, shooting into each person stood around them.

“You should be healed by now.” The voice of the leader had a high pitched, scratchy voice. Rose looked around her to see many of the others looking puzzled.  
“We are here to obtain some important people for _the Giver_ , I would recommend that you all step forward as I call your name. We do not wish to harm you. _Any_ of you.”

He held up another ball. This one glowed with a pink hue, showing pink images. Rose felt a lead weight drop in her stomach; they were looking for _her_.  
“Rose Tyler. Jackie Tyler. Pete Tyler. Tony Tyler. John Smith, the Metacrisis Doctor.” Rose paled. “You will all step forward, failure to do so will result in the innocent people around you being killed.”

“They’re not here.” Yvonne called out, “they’ve gone into hiding. You’re the same people that attacked their mansion, correct?”

“That was not an attack,” the leader argued.

Yvonne laughed, “call it what you want, the fact is you scared your targets into hiding.”

A group of employees had surrounded the Tyler family. Something was pressed into Rose’s hand, seeing it was a dimension jump. Risking a glance at the rest of her family, she saw Jackie put one around Tony’s neck.  
Rose pushed the button and felt herself falling into something cold, her last thoughts were of the Doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a pain to write!
> 
> I would like to thank CalicoBill and FallenAngelsBleed from Discord for helping me with this!


End file.
